Admit that you are excited. Yes, during the summer we were busy, as always with our football, in almost everything except football. The long and tiring saga of Beitar Jerusalem in the budget control, the transfer of ownership of Bnei Yehuda, Maccabi Petah Tikva who may or may not be going back to the Premier League, and the “dessert”, the almost annual threat of Sakhnin’s relegation, and the postponement of the games for our European teams. But come on Let’s put all that aside. Wow, what a season ahead of us.
It was the transfer window like it is probably impossible to remember in our football. Maccabi Haifa’s two championships, which interrupted the yellow hegemony, produced the best effect we could have hoped for. A tremendous armament campaign by both teams, led by Maccabi Tel Aviv and the owner Mitch Goldhar, who decided to open the pocket in an unprecedented way. seven? apathetic? not interested? You made the Canadian laugh.
And what about Maccabi Haifa? It cannot be said that Yaakov Shahar froze on the yeast. Although the Greens “went crazy” less than their Tel Aviv rival, they certainly spent respectable amounts and significantly strengthened the staff, as we have already seen in the Champions League. So who is the procurement champion this summer, maybe she even comes from the southern region? Let’s check.
Champion, also in the summer: Maccabi Haifa
Advance work, planning, an impressive scouting system, and a squad that is already ready in June and arrives at peak fitness for the season. Three years ago, such words about Maccabi Haifa would have sounded detached from reality, but the club from Carmel is coming after two championships, and looks hungrier than ever, with the Greens’ European journey so far making them, at least at the moment, the favorites for a third championship.
The Greens, without any doubt, currently have the best foreign players in the league. Frantezdi Piero, Pierre Cornot and Daniel Sondgren who arrived in the summer have integrated wonderfully into Barak Becher’s machine. Nikita Rukavica will add punch and a lot of experience in the league games, and Yanon Eliyahu is also a substitute defender definitely worthy of the league, especially when it seems that Haifa is going to a long European season.
For me, despite the unprecedented squad that Maccabi Tel Aviv is building and we’ll get to that right away, Maccabi Haifa, as of August 2022, is the team that performed most impressively this summer. And yes, she is still the favorite to win the championship. The team that ran together, the work of Barak Becher, the foreigners who had already gone through a period of acclimatization, and the fact that it proved that even in the less good days of Omar Atzili it is an almost unstoppable attack group in our terms, proved that there is no substitute for work and proper planning.
When she connects, who will stop her? Maccabi Tel Aviv
Does the purchase of the yellows guarantee them a championship? of course not. They may not even be the favorites at this stage of the season. But if anyone had any doubts, even the slightest, about Mitch Goldhar’s desire to return control of Israeli football to the Yellows, the current transfer window has arrived, and at the end of it, the construction of one of the strongest squads we have seen in Israeli football.
Alongside George Jovanovic, who arrived in January and already turned out to be a hit, Maccabi Tel Aviv added the most senior Israelis in the market. Nir Biton arrived after a decade in Scotland, Dor Peretz, the best player of the yellows two years ago, returned after a year in Italy, and above all, Eran Zahavi, who in only 60 minutes in Europe, mentioned that he is a player that is unparalleled in our football.
To this we can add Joris Van Overeem, who came from Holland and looked good in the opening games of the season, and Parfa Goyagon, who came back from the loan after impressing a lot in Maccabi Netanya. And we haven’t even started to mention Eli Desa who seems closer than ever to return to the yellows.
If you still want to find a downside this summer, you can’t ignore the glaring downside of a high-level foreign brake. According to Ivitch, Maccabi Tel Aviv has not yet completed its procurement, and it will certainly be surprising if it does not land one of these. The mighty Serbian coach takes over what can certainly be considered the deepest and most flashy squad we’ve seen here. It is difficult to think of a coach more suitable for the position, but even for a professional like him, it is not an easy challenge. Second place would be considered a colossal failure. If it all comes together? We are predicted to be a team that will go down in history.
Don’t sleep on it: Hapoel Beer Sheva
The third side, at least on paper, in the championship fight. It seems that the holder of the trophy, both last season and at the beginning of this season, does not receive the respect it deserves. It’s true, Beer Sheva doesn’t play sexy and attacking football like its two rivals for the top, but it will continue to be a tough team, which will rarely lose points, and will always be there to blow in the back of Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Beer Sheva did not riot this summer, but got stronger with some very intriguing players, both in the foreign and Israeli sector. Shafi Suleimanov, at least on paper, is one of the most impressive players to come to Israeli football in recent years, and should add a tremendous attacking dimension to the wing. Astrit Soleimani showed sparks in Europe, and together with Tomer Hamed, the most surprising acquisition in our football this summer, it seems that Eliniv Barda has significantly upgraded his front line.
Shay Elias will try to prove that he indeed belongs to the highest levels, and Beer Sheva will continue to be very dependent on the stationary situations and the competence of Ramzi Spori. Its defensive unit with Ayad Abu Abid, Miguel Vitor and Hatem Abdelhamid is the best in Israel, and it seems that the squad has upgraded in the right places.
There have been quite a few other intriguing moves this summer. Maccabi Netanya will have to get used to life without Eden Kartsev and Parfa Goyagon, Hapoel Tel Aviv parted ways with Doron Leidner, Shai Elias and striker Shlomi Azoulay, but landed intriguing names like Hisham Laios, Antoine Conte, and maybe even get the contribution from Kays Ganem who looked good in the Toto Cup games. Bnei Raina, the new immigrant, has gone through a complete revolution, and Hapoel Haifa? Well, at this point it seems we should wait before rushing to judgement.
But in the end, it was a summer in which Mitch Goldhar, Yaakov Shahar and Alona Barkat further established the dominance of the three biggest clubs in our football. The gap from places 4 and below is expected to be, in my opinion, bigger than ever, and the three-way battle between them will create for us a sort of super league within the league. Full stadiums, big returning stars and foreigners at a level that, at least on paper, we haven’t seen here in many years. Can’t wait anymore.
